Building and Sustaining a Community of Inquiry: Implications for Online Professional Doctoral Education

• In Event: Challenges and Opportunities With Online, Distance, and Virtual Education

Abstract

This study applies the Community of Inquiry framework to a specific post-secondary context—the education doctorate—to examine the development and sustainability of community and collaborative learning. It presents reflection of faculty members in a U.S.-based Ed.D. program on teaching an online practicum course during the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative methodology was used to examine how a cohort of 15 students responded to the adapted pedagogies employed and the perceived effect of these strategies on learning and community. The results suggest that structured assignments, purposeful discourse, and teacher presence can create opportunities for reflective learning as a key component of scholarly practitioner development. Implications for the importance of social and cognitive presence in online doctoral education are discussed

Authors

• Veselina Lambrev, University of South Florida - Tampa

• Barbara C. Cruz, University of South Florida - Tampa